The Uses of Institutional Culture: Strengthening Identification and Building Brand Equity in Higher Education (review)

In the latest ASHE/ERIC report, the authors contend that organizational culture should not just be studied in higher education but should also be used profitably by college leaders to improve their market position. A strong organizational culture provides a degree of social cohesion in the university from a shared set of norms, values, and beliefs. This culture can then be used by the university as a marketing tool to demonstrate that it has a special and unique niche, which in turn will attract new students well suited for the culture of the university.

The argument rests primarily on the confluence of three literatures: organizational culture, branding, and organizational identity. Nearly half of the volume is devoted to a literature review of organizational culture, which could be a useful starting point for researchers looking for an extended introduction to the topic, particularly the chapter on the substance and form of organizational culture.

The literatures on organizational identity and branding will be more novel to college leaders and researchers in higher education. Organizational identity consists of two elements: the "perceived organizational identity" (what internal actors see as the primary mission and culture of the organization) and the "construed external image" (how others see the primary mission and culture of the organization). A strong identity confers benefits on the organization: the legitimacy of organizational membership, the prestige of the identity, and the associated resources that may follow.

Building a brand is a marketing process by which institutional identification can be conveyed to interested parties. For a brand to work, it must be a coherent and compelling image of the organization. Once the brand has been built, the organization has a degree of "brand equity," which serves as a resource beyond the organization's financial health and human capital. In addition to strengthening organizational identification, brand equity can be enhanced through advertising and communication, deploying symbols, and highlighting competitive advantages.

The authors seem conflicted about whether the text would be most useful for college leaders or for higher education researchers. Scholars of organizations will find the discussion of organizational identity and branding to be somewhat thin. The literature on organizational identity is embryonic, relying upon a few key pieces by Jane Dutton, David Whetten, and others. But the authors overlook the substantial literature on impression management, which examines how organizational leaders manage the perceptions of constituents and external actors (Elsbach, 2003). An examination of this literature would provide highly complementary insights into possible uses of organizational culture.

It is also notable that the authors are clearly thinking of the organization as an institution imbued with values and beliefs, but ignore any insights one might draw from institutional theory (Powell & DiMaggio, 1991; Scott, 2001). Indeed, institutional theory provides certain hypotheses that are contrary to the authors'. A fundamental premise of the monograph is that building a unique niche will attract additional enrollment and thus improve the university's probability of survival. Institutional theory predicts the opposite—namely, that institutional isomorphism (field-level forces leading to similarity in structure and processes) will lead to increased legitimacy and thus increased survival. Thus, organizations that strike out on their own will have a higher probability of failure. There are almost certainly elements of truth to both positions, but to date they remain fascinatingly unresolved.

These conceptual compromises would be less noteworthy if the text were clearly designed to engage college presidents and other important leaders. At times, this seems to be the aim; the structure of an executive summary followed by brief chapters would lead to this conclusion. With over half of the text consisting of literature review, however, it would be difficult to find a college president with the patience to sift through the text to draw...